================================================IMS Web Tips ******** ISSUE 3 July 20 1999 *********"Free Tips and Tricks for getting the most out of your Web Site.This e-mail is being sent to you because you subscribed totips@VirtualMechanics.com

Please forward this news letter on to your colleagues and friends.================================================In this issue:

In addition to these special symbols, you can enter any ASCIIcharacter using this special format by specifying its decimal codepreceded by a # (pound) symbol. If you don't know, the ASCIIcharacter set represents every character on the keyboard plus all theinvisible characters. There are 256 ASCII characters all togetherwhich is not so coincidentally, exactly the number of bitcombinations in a byte. The letter A is &#065; the letter B is&#066; and so on. The ASCII decimal code for the copyrightsymbol is 169 and is entered as &#169; Many good computerreference books include a table of all 256 ASCII characters. We willpost a copy on our site when we have time and let you know. Youshould be careful using codes below 32 since many of these are usedfor file control. The NULL character #000 in particular is used toterminate an ASCII file and could cause you problems if youattempt to use it.

Over the last two issues I explained how to set up your Meta Tagsso that they can be indexed and categorized by the various searchengines. Many search engine use a small program called a Spider tosearch and categorize as many web pages as possible. If you donothing else you may find that people start linking to your site afterbeing found on a search engine simply because you set up your metatags correctly. If you do nothing else however, you will be missingout since many search engines will not send a spider to your siteuntil you register while some search engines do not use spiders atall.

Optimizing your site for visiting spiders is a topic in itself that I willtalk about in more detail next week. This week I will explain someof the things you should do to register your site with the searchengines.

I am sure many of you have seen ads to register your site with overseveral hundred search engines. These programs can be very usefulwhen dealing with a large number of specialty indexes. Many ofthese indexes will generate little traffic to your site but some can bevery productive and well worth the effort if the submission processis automated by a program. The major search engines however, are adifferent story. These are too important to be left to a submissionprogram and should be handled individually.

There are at least 5 major search that you should know somethingabout to optimize your submission.

AltaVista. Register at:http://www.altavista.com/av/content/addurl.htmThis is the largest search engine on the net and is easy to getregistered with if your meta tags are set up correctly. Submit yourmain page and 1 other page every two weeks. Let their spider crawlthe rest of your site for best results.

HotBot Register at:http://www.hotbot.com/addurl.aspThis is another very large search engine. Submit your two mostimportant pages every two weeks.

Goto Register at:https://www.goto.com/linead/getlisted.cgiYou can get any ranking you like on this engine provided you payfor it. Keywords are auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Excite Register athttp://www.excite.com/info/add_urlSubmit your site every two weeks

Lycos Register at:http://www.lycos.com/addasite.htmlYou need at least 75 words on your home page to be properly indexby the Lycos spider.

Infoseek Register at:http://infoseek.go.com/AddUrl?pg=SubmitUrl.htmlInfoseek rarely spiders web sites so it is important to submit asmany relevant pages as possible.

Yahoo Register at:http://howto.yahoo.com/chapters/10/1.htmlYahoo is the most popular search engine on the net but gettinglisted can be difficult. Estimates are that only 1 in 10 submissionsget listed and even then it can take up to 15 weeks. Yahoo hasrecently introduced a fast-track registration process that cost $199.This will get your site reviewed within 7 days but will not guaranteethat it is listed. They review your site individually and will list it ifthey feel that it offers something of value to their customers.

As most of you probably know, IMS Web Engine and IMS WebSpinner allow you to assign a HTML link to any Object by using theObject Editor Link Dialog. This is simple and convenient. Whenyou create a multi-page project the Editor's ability to keep track ofinternal links even after you change a page name is especiallyuseful.

Sometimes however, you may want to enter a link directly inside atext Object. Creating a separate Object for multiple links can betedious to set up and maintain. A more convenient method is toenter a link inside a Text, HTML or Rich Text Object. With a littleknowledge of HTML this can be easily accomplished.

A HTML link is created with the Anchor Tag. The tag itselfspecifies the URL to be linked to and surrounds a text or picturethat the user can click on. The format is:<A HREF="http://www.awebpage.com">click here</a>. The Tagstarts with <a. The URL to link to is enclosed in quotes followingthe href= command. The text that the user clicks on is between the> (Greater Than) bracket and the anchor terminating tag </a>.

To create a list of links within a Text or HTML Object, you wouldsimply combine multiple anchors. I have posted an example at:is3fig2 . For yourinformation, I used Special Characters as discussed in topic 1 todisplay the code needed to produce the link lists. When enteringtext into a HTML Object, you can use the <br> tag to start a newline.

As I mentioned in a previous news letter, I do not normallyrecommend that you mix Rich Text and HTML tags. The reason isthat IMS converts the Rich Text format to HTML when you Exportor Publish your project. If you change a Rich Text format such asthe Font Size or Color within a HTML tag, the conversion will mixthe two tags producing incorrect code. If you are careful not tochange any format within a HTML tag, it is possible however, tomix the two formats successfully. If you do decide to add HTMLcode when editing Rich Text and end up with an error, you canoften correct the problem by changing the Object to HTML format,exiting the editor, re-entering the Editor and then changing theformat back to Rich Text again.

I was asked about importing Scripts and HTML in last weeks newsletter. If you recall, almost any valid script or HTML code can bepasted into a text Object and positioned on your Web Page. One ofthe nice aspects of this method is that you can manipulate thisObject just like any other text or image Object including applyingBehaviors and Actions. For this operation, you will want to makethe Counter Object invisible until you perform an action that onlyyou know about to make it visible.

If you are using IMS Web Engine, you can be quite sophisticatedwith this. If you are using IMS Web Spinner or manually editingcode, it is still possible but a little riskier that some one willaccidentally stumble upon the hidden counter. An example of ahidden counter can be viewed at is3fig2 To view asimple example of a counter, you will have to move your mouseover the "is3fig2" text to reveal the counter. A harder to revealcounter produced by IMS Web Engine is hidden under the "is3fig3"text Object. To see it, you will not only have to move your mouseover the counter but you will have to press the lower case "c"character on you keyboard.

Finally, if you note in these examples I have hidden the counterbehind another Object.. Why did I not just make the counterinvisible? First, an invisible Object is harder to find on your webpage. Second, I am not sure that the counter will work if it isInvisible. Maybe some one can give it a try and let us know.

******************I need to write a script for a three-levelpull-down menu when the mouse moves over a button or specialtext and jumps to the corresponding URL on a mouse click. Do youhave a script like this or can you please name me a tool which canhelp me?

IMS Web Engine has supported the ability to create a Drop Menusince its first release. A Wizard was also recently created andreleased to simplify the creation of drop menus. The fact that westill receive a fair number of questions on this topic suggests thateither many of you do not know that a Drop Menu Wizard exists, oryou still need more clarification on its use.

For those of you that are not familiar with the term, Drop Menusare a relatively new effect that has gained a lot of popularity onsome of the major sites in recent months. Microsoft in particular isusing them extensively on their site. Our DHTML entry pageincludes drop menus. We also have an example on our Wizard Page

Drop menus can be created quickly in IMS Web Engine with theDrop Menu Wizard. IMS Web Spinner does not directly supportDrop Menus but a close approximation can be created with theMouse Over Wizard.

In a Drop Menu, a Nav Bar includes a Menu Topic Object such as"Select a Link". When the mouse moves over the Menu Topic, itwill Trigger the Drop Menu. The Drop Menu is simply a HTMLText Object with multiple links. An example would be:

Do you recognize it? This is simply the link list we discussed in theprevious topic. You can manually create the Drop Menu in IMSWeb Engine by assigning the correct Behaviors to the TriggerObject and Drop Menu Object. Using the Wizard however, is fasterand more reliable. In IMS Web Spinner, use a Mouse Over Effectfor the Drop Menu. The Menu Object will appear when the mousemoves over it instead of over the Menu Topic Object. Not quitewhat you want but close.

OK? With a bit of practice you should get it but if not, let me knowand we will discuss it some more.